Everyone from Gen. David Petraeus to Hillary Clinton to the National Association of Evangelicals has been urging this bozo of a pastor at a matchbox-sized church in Gainesville, Florida, not to burn the Qur’an tomorrow. The only prominent Christian we haven’t heard from is Tim Tebow (though I wish we would). The media are eating all this up, because it fits their narrative of Christians as dufusses.
The situation is in some ways analogous to the imam who wants to build the equally offensive Ground Zero mosque. What’s in question in both cases is not the legality but the propriety of the action. There are a couple of important differences, however.
First, the president has not defended the church’s right to burn the Qur’an (while refusing to weigh in on the wisdom). Instead, Mr. Obama has weighed in on the wisdom of doing this (while declining to talk about the legality). Second, precious few Muslims have actually complained about the mosque, while countless Christians have complained about the church.
Why is that?
Hi Stan,
Saw your link on facebook and stopped in to read a bit. I agree with your point in the post about the “Muslim street.” I think it’s ridiculous for the imam in NY to say he’s building his community center/mosque out of fear of public opinion. But there’s no way that his building of this building is “as offensive” as burning Korans. There is nothing in Christian theology about buildings and “sacred” memorials and all the other things people are saying about Ground Zero. I think people are way blowing it out of proportion to say that a mosque two blocks away from the site of a terrorist attack is offensive. Bush said many many times that America’s fight was not with Islam or Muslims, but radicals and extremists who use violence for their cause. The guy in Florida wants to upset people by burning Korans. The guy in new york thought a community center devoted to interfaith activity would be a good thing for the community. People might disagree, but it is not “as offensive.”
Brian,
I agree that building a mosque (and community center) is not intrinsically offensive in the way burning a Qur’an is. But it is contextually offensive, given where the imam wants to build it and what happened there and how most Americans feel about it. But context is the crux of this debate–not whether Muslims have a right to build a mosque, but whether they should build it there.
Even if the imam disagrees with American public opinion on this, isn’t the good and decent thing to do, which would incidentally improve interfaith relations, be to build the mosque elsewhere? There’s a difference, by the way, between taking the feelings of people into consideration and bowing to threats.
Imam Rauf should do the kind and sensitive thing and move the mosque. That would no doubt improve interfaith relations, don’t you think?
Stan
Maybe in the short run some people (even a majority of people) would be happier with these muslims if they move their center, although I suspect at this point, if they did move it, no one would say “thank you.” They’d say, “Yea, we won!” I saw Time Magazine’s poll that said nearly 70% of those asked oppose the building, so maybe the imam and his group should just move the building. (How far? Five blocks? Ten Blocks? Rhode Island?) But would it help interfaith relations? Is this really about “faith?” The Ground Zero memorial has nothing (or should have nothing) to do with Christ. It’s not a Christian site. In the long run, I think having a muslim community center and place of worship near the site could help people understand that the terrorists were not representatives of Islam any more than Rev. Jones is a representative of Christianity. I wish Christians were lining up to defend the builders of the mosque, helping those who are still grieving the loss of family and friends in the 9/11 attack to see that holding bitterness against the people of an entire religion is not a Christian response to tragedy.
Brian,
Well said, but I’ll have to disagree with you on this one. I’ve never argued the Ground Zero site is a Christian site. It’s this group pf Muslims that says it is about interfaith relations and understanding, so if they really want to promote that, it seems like a no-brainer to me that they should work with the governor, with Donald Trump, with the families of the victims to find another site. But for some reason, they have dug in their heels and we are all the losers for it–but especially them.
Stan